Theme: Local solutions to global issues

For the sixth year TEDxAberystwyth is organised by a group of volunteers. Aberystwyth and its surrounding area have a rich pool of excellent resident speakers, combined with those who have past connections locally. This year’s TEDxAberystwyth theme is "Local ideas to global issues".

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized and non-profit events. It brings a TED-like experience of multidisciplinary talks from inspiring speakers.

The event features thought-provoking talks with novel and stimulating ideas from the arts, science, media, sport, environment, society and beyond. Find out more about our speakers at https://tedxaberystwyth.com/ and on Twitter/Instagram at @tedxaberystwyth

Aberystwyth Arts Centre Cinema
Aberystwyth University
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DE
United Kingdom

Alice Vernon

Lecturer in Creative Writing

Dr Alice Vernon is Lecturer in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University, where she teaches students the fundamentals of storytelling. Her research specialises in the history of medicine and Victorian parapsychology, and her debut non-fiction book, Night Terrors, was published by Icon Books in October 2022. She received her PhD from Aberystwyth University in 2018. Alice's research primarily involves the history of medicine, with a focus on Renaissance anatomy and Victorian parapsychology. She is particularly interested in the cultural and scientific depictions of sleep disorders such as sleep paralysis, lucid dreams, and hypnopompic hallucinations. TEDxAberystwyth is an independently organized non-profit TED-like event, find out more: https://tedxaberystwyth.com/.

Alison Kingston-Smith

Research scientist and Director of Research at IBERS, Aberystwyth University

Professor Alison Kingston-Smith BSc (Newcastle University) PhD (Imperial College, London) is a research scientist and Director of Research at IBERS, Aberystwyth University. She is a biochemist with a background in plant, animal and microbial systems related to agriculture and food production. While the main focus of her work has been on how we can alter plants to improve nutritional benefit to livestock and reduce emissions, she has recently developed an interest in how edible insects could fit into our food production systems. TEDxAberystwyth is an independently organized non-profit TED-like event, find out more: https://tedxaberystwyth.com/.

Bill McAllister-Lovatt

Creative Change & Organisational Development

An experienced Business Consultant, coach & mentor. Transformational Leader with knowledge, experience of Business Psychology, Eco-Business Modelling Business Change(Using Nature Models) Health & Social Care, Voluntary Sector, Trustee of Local Charity. Extensive consulting experience gained through senior posts held within consulting practices, utilising my consulting practice experience to enhance business operations and people, to increase performance and profit. TEDxAberystwyth is an independently organized non-profit TED-like event, find out more: https://tedxaberystwyth.com/.

Faaeza Jasdanwalla-Williams

Historian

Faaeza Jasdanwalla-Williams is a historian of women in the Ottoman Empire in the early modern period and of the African diaspora in India. Faaeza received her BA from Mumbai University, India and her MA and PhD in History from Aberystwyth University, where she taught in the History Department 2009-2019. She published on the African diaspora and taken part in events organised by the UN to commemorate the International Decade for People of African Descent 2015-2024 and presented her research in New York and Oslo. Faaeza is multilingual, being fluent in Hindi and Urdu, with English being her first language. She also learnt Turkish for Doctoral research purposes and began learning Farsi, Arabic and Welsh. TEDxAberystwyth is an independently organized non-profit TED-like event, find out more: https://tedxaberystwyth.com/.

Huw Morgan

Professor

Dr Huw Morgan leads the Solar System Physics group at Aberystwyth University, and has worked in Solar Physics and Space Weather for 20 years. His Leverhulme and STFC-funded research in analysing observations of space weather events has led to projects to develop operational space weather forecasting software, including for the UK Met Office. Huw lives with his family in mid-Wales, and outside of work enjoys writing/recording music, mountain biking, trail running, gardening, and supporting Llanelli Scarlets rugby club. TEDxAberystwyth is an independently organized non-profit TED-like event, find out more: https://tedxaberystwyth.com/.

Jasmine Donahaye

Writer, Literatrure Professor

Jasmine Donahaye is a part-time Professor of Creative Writing at Swansea University, and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. Her publications include narrative non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and cultural criticism. Her work has appeared in the New York Times and the Guardian, and her documentary ‘Statue No. 1’ was broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her books include Birdsplaining: a Natural History (2023); Losing Israel (2015), winner of Non-Fiction Wales Book of the Year; a biography of author Lily Tobias, The Greatest Need (2015); Whose People? Wales, Israel, Palestine (2012), and two collections of poetry: Self-Portrait as Ruth (2009), and Misappropriations (2006). TEDxAberystwyth is an independently organized non-profit TED-like event, find out more: https://tedxaberystwyth.com/.

Jonathan Evershed

Anthropologist

Jonathan Evershed is an anthropologist with a research specialism in political, social and constitutional change in the UK and Ireland. He is the former Newman Fellow in Constitutional Futures at University College Dublin, has also held Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in the Departments of English and Government and Politics at University College Cork, and completed his PhD in Irish Studies at Queen's University Belfast. He is the author of books offering ethnographic exploration of Northern Ireland's contemporary politics. Recently his work examined the changing nature of Welsh constitutional politics, and of relationships with and across the Irish Sea. Having recently returned to live and work in Wales, Jonathan is now seeking to use his research skills and experience to contribute to processes of community development and nation building in Mid and West Wales. TEDxAberystwyth is an independently organized non-profit TED-like event, find out more: https://tedxaberystwyth.com/.

Panna Karlinger

Lecturer in Education

Born and raised in Hungary, Panna Karlinger got her BSc in Mathematics and Education in 2019. Currently working on her PhD, focusing on cyberbullying and online abuse in Higher Education. She started her HE teaching career in 2018, in the Further Mathematics Support Programme for Wales. She has been working as a full-time lecturer in Education and Childhood since September 2021. She is also involved in the Wales Collaborative for Learning Design (WCLD), focussing on Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). Since 2017, she has been volunteering for Home-Start UK, supporting vulnerable families in the area, and now as the university link tutor. These experiences were formative in determining her primary research area focussing on bullying and abuse, and she is hoping to take this further in the direction of domestic abuse and violence to inform policy and debate in the area. TEDxAberystwyth is an independently organized non-profit TED-like event, find out more: https://tedxaberystwyth.com/.

Peter Gwyn Williams

Technical Relationships Manager

Peter has spent over 20 years working on key Digital delivery and awareness-raising projects in Wales, often playing a hands-on role in explaining the benefits to organisations, businesses and stakeholders. In 2013, Peter moved to the Digital Infrastructure Department within the Welsh Government, supporting and leading Digital Infrastructure Developments in the Local Growth and Enterprise Zones, these include the Superfast Cymru Programme, Mobile Infrastructure Project, village and town WiFi Projects, and more recently has led or initiated LoRaWAN pilots and trials. TEDxAberystwyth is an independently organized non-profit TED-like event, find out more: https://tedxaberystwyth.com/.

Simon Thorne

Senior Lecturer in Computer Science

Dr Simon Thorne is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Simon teaches and researches in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Neural Networks, End User Computing, Spreadsheet Error and Human Factors. As editor of EuSpRIG, he has overseen the publication of over 100 peer reviewed manuscripts in 13 published proceedings. Simon has personally published 30 peer reviewed manuscripts in journals and conferences and has published 19 manuscripts on spreadsheet risk and software quality. He has led £600K in EU and UK research funding and is a subject specialist for AI, machine learning and software quality for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). TEDxAberystwyth is an independently organized non-profit TED-like event, find out more: https://tedxaberystwyth.com/.

Thora Tenbrink

Professor of Linguistics

Thora Tenbrink is a Professor of Linguistics at Bangor University (Wales, UK), who uses linguistic analysis to understand how people think. She is author of “Cognitive Discourse Analysis: An Introduction” (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and "Space, Time, and the Use of Language" (Mouton de Gruyter, 2007), co-editor of three books on linguistic representation and dialogue, and has published about 40 peer-reviewed journal articles in areas of language and cognition. She is also Director of the Places of Climate Change Research Centre at Bangor University, and of the Research Institute at the College of Arts, Humanities and Business. TEDxAberystwyth is an independently organized non-profit TED-like event, find out more: https://tedxaberystwyth.com/.

Vince Hafeli

Consultant and speaker advocate

Vince Hafel has over 37 years of experience in the highway construction industry, among the most recent years leading a team of 470+ employees as President for Ajax Paving Industries of Florida, LLC. He has a diverse background holding positions including Field Quality Control and Inspection, Project Manager, and Vice President of Asphalt Plants and Materials. Vince is in the Doctoral Candidacy phase of his Doctorate of Business Administration degree at the University of South Florida where his research is on suicide in the construction industry. TEDxAberystwyth is an independently organized non-profit TED-like event, find out more: https://tedxaberystwyth.com/.